People Movers 2

Here was the first in this series, from quite a while back.   The next two photos below were taken late last week by Brian DeForest.

Miss New York, Blount built in 1993 leaves the Statue quite dramatically.

Ferry Lt. Samuel S. Coursen, Mathis built 1956, was named for this West Point grad.

That’s Explorer of the Seas in the background.

Water Taxi and NYC Audubon operate this winter cruise to watch the water mammal between the boat and my lens.

Seals in the harbor are the real people movers.

And finally, let’s move from those mammals to one painted on the ferry Major General  William H. Hart, Staten-Island built 1926 . . . now rebranded as SS Meow Man.

On pages 450-1 of Peter& Norma Stanford’s A Dream of Tall Ships–which I reviewed here— there’s a description of this vessel’s hand-over from the USCG to South Street Seaport, where for a period of time it served as a marine trades training school, partly funded by Brooke Astor.  Here was a post where I used a slightly different version of this Hart photos.

Thanks to Brian for use of the first two photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Gallimaufry 3

. . . aka a jumble.

I took the foto below of Stephen  L. Colby (St. Louis, MO-built, 1967, 144′ x 40′) on 1/4/2013 in Cairo, IL.  Yesterday, the boat sank into 14 feet of water farther north on the Mississippi.

Below, s/v Concetta meets Charles D. McAllister (Jacksonville, FL, 1967, 94′ x 29′)  in late October.

Twin Tube (Blount, 1951, 64′ x 19′)  passes the polytube rack.  If you click on the link in the previous sentence, you’ll see the very next completed Blount project was of Ceres, a “grain elevator.”  A google search turned up no fotos.  Anyone know of any?

I took this foto a week and a half ago.  Currently, Grande Sierra Leone has left Dakar bound for Cotonou, passing the older Grande Buenos Aires en route.

Bow Hector in the Kills a few days ago . . . now in Morehead City.   Bow! Hector!

Taft Beach . . . shuttling dredge spoils, inbound.

Sludge tanker North River noses past 118,000-bbl  barge Charleston.

On Marathon Day, this was Explorer of the Seas ( I think) approaching the Narrows, as seen past the stern of Transib Bridge.

A few days ago . . . it’s Challenge Paradise.   I wonder if that’s ever a command. . . .

And at the same moment, crude oil tanker Felicity.   By the way, I passed between felicity and challenge paradise . ..  steering clear.   Both vessels are currently southbound off the coast of the Carolinas.

Finally, in the Buttermilk, it’s MAST’s r/v Blue Sea, passing Wilson Newcastle and McAllister Responder.    Responder and Charles D. are two of the triplets built near the end of the run at Gibbs Gas Engine, currently a place to sleep and stroll.   The last time I saw Roderick-the third triplet– in the sixth boro was here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Looking for Mischief

Here’s my response to bowsprite’s post on Albany-bound ships . . .  she drew a TEN tanker called Afrodite, but when I came looking–more on that later–I saw only Apollon, not necessarily Albany bound.

I saw MOL Encore, again bound for Asia.

I found Maersk Memphis . . . until very recently Maersk Kwangyang.

I noticed C. Angelo passing Explorer of the Seas.

I noticed workers walking the cables of the

VZ Bridge . . . .

Then I had obligations and headed over to Staten Island and caught Dalian Express passing Maemi II.

I was there when Hanjin Nagoya headed underneath the Bayonne Bridge, as did a pack

of Moran boats . . .  .

And only later did I find Mischief–S/V Mischief, or I think that’s her, sailed by Harry and John.   But that’s when I found  . . . if not more mischief then misfortune.

the Bayonne Bridge walkway/bikeway . . . is now closed!!  I wish they’d put up a re-opening date . . .  8/5/15?  8/5/16?  Until then, there’ll be no more fotos like the last seven here.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.

Random Traffic June 2012

Shuttles and warships and barks come and go, but the work in the boro never quits.  Greets to all the crew on Falcon (1970),

Crystal Cutler (2010),

Kimberly Poling (1994),

First Coast (1968) and Grace D,

Mary Turecamo, barge Tennessee, and Explorer of the Seas in the background of several of the shots above,

Cecilia Miller and an unidentified WaterTaxi over by Brooklyn Ferry Landing,

All fotos by will Van Dorp, who will be “on assignment” for a few days.

Meanwhile some ponderables:

Movies to see:  Terraferma (maybe Wednesday night) and Beasts of the Southern Wild . . .

A new radio show to create called Boat Talks . . . now that Tom and Ray are parking it . . .

Cruiser Excitement

From John Watson:  When I saw Explorer of the Seas (EOS) leave the dock, I turned on the NY Harbor webcam to be able to watch it leave port after it exited my window view.  Carnival Glory had not yet left, so I kept the webcam  feed up.  Thirty minutes later I checked on Glory’s progress only to find EOS  on her way back in.  No cruise is THAT short , I thought, so I turned on the marine radio.  The pilot said, “…there were waiting on the pier.”  Late passengers getting VIP treatment?  It turned out to be medics for a sick passenger.  EOS went nose in instead of stern first, as it usually does. 

Meanwhile Carnival Glory was outbound.  Waiting for Glory south of the Statue was Firefighter II  spraying water . . . I heard …

…for a couple on Glory. The couple must be special in order to get a water display.

Thanks, John.  My addition . . . passengers on Explorer of the Seas got a special treat:  three times exploring the underside of the Verrazano Bridge on one leg bound for sea.  Also, in the first foto, notice  Meagan Ann pushing a scow?  Time elapse from the first to the fourth foto was less than an hour.

Spring Giddiness

This post is inspired by Sea Bart, the humor behind uglyships.com, the mariner who–outside of his realm of  responsibility–just has way too much fun.  And his humor I find infectious.  If Swinburne and Hoffman were still quarantine islands outside the sixth boro and Bart were to arrive, he’d surely be put off there in a futile attempt to cure his irreverence.

He calls his finds “ugly.”  I’ll classify mine as giddy-making, like this illusion of bird-as-alternate-propulsion for MSC Ornella,

Goldman-Sachs Tower as upper wheelhouse of Thomas D. Witte (ex- Kendall P. Brake, Reliance, Tammy, Matty J, AND June C)

a cargo vessel named Cargo, (Note:  a cargo vessel named “cargo” is not easy to research!!)

(doubleclick enlarges most of the time) a lighthouse (more of this lighthouse soon) in the hold of Atlantic Runner,

a new supra-superstructure on Explorer of the Seas,

ditto on East Coast as well as on

Kristin Poling, whom you’ll see more of soon;  and all of this

brings me to Bart.  Tug’s name–Bart alleges–is Follow Me.  And what name do you suppose the barge following carries?

Lead Me On.  If you resolution of these fotos I purloined from Bart isn’t satisfactory, see it on Bart’s own post here.  Doubleclick on his foto.

All fotos except Bart’s by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated and a few weeks late, but I call this giddy anchor catch on Pilot Boat.

Random Ships 13

Back in the sixth boro, I prefer sunny, calm days when colors glow and the water mirrors not perfectly but does so adding intrigue.  Who doesn’t like those conditions?  Who wouldn’t want every taking of food to qualify as a dining experience, but that is just not realistic, at least in my world.

Darya Shanthi catches some dapples of sunlight here although the sky and water look sandpapered.

Sister tankers Strofades (nearer) and Sporades salute each other at IMTT Bayonne on the KVK.   Note the unique coloring on Strofades‘ hip, which

gets mimicked up forward too.  My immediate thought was the white tail splotches that distinguish one humpback whale from every other one.  Brendan Turecamo alongside.

The gray day, opaque water, and almost illegible ship’s name makes me expect that their VHF is also stxxatxxxicxxxckyxxx.

Bering Sea:  too bad I missed the foto of the K-Sea tug by that name passing the tanker.

Lakatamia is clearer than the washed-out Brooklyn background.

Linda Moran lighters off Eagle Beaumont.  Actually, I thought I saw Linda a few days later, but

on closer examination, I noticed it was a new one to me:  Lois Ann L. Moran, she born of the fire.  See her launch here;  not much happens until about 2:30 minutes.

Marjorie B. McAllister escorts Marie Schulte out to sea.

And, last but . . ..   here Explorer of the Seas heads out towards the Narrows from the Bayonne passenger terminal.  Seeing people afloat sometimes conjures up thoughts of the past, a different pace and rhythm, the glamour of ocean liners like those created by bowsprite here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Meditations X

X . . . no xebecs sail the sixth boro, and my 2100-page dictionary has only 2 and a quarter pages devoted to words starting with “x.”  Yet, when X lives  in a word, it intensifies.  Consider the difference between the mundane “tacks” and the pulse-quickening “tax.”   I’ll get back to this deck barge in a moment.

From math we learn that X is the unknown.  Of all the steel beyond the eastbound tug Norwegian Sea, backlighting “x’s” out all the details except silhouette.  From AIS, I know the ships are tankers Tanja Jacob and Kinaros (member of the elite AMVER group), and beyond them MS Explorer of the Seas.

X . . . experimental, except Twin Tube is not a sailing prototype; rather, it’s half of the Reynolds lightering fleet.

Dutch replica vessels like Onrust and Half Moon often sport XXX somewhere, which some attribute to the laissez-faire of Amsterdam, but in fact,

the letters are crosses and arranged vertically.

Xcentric . . . might be an exhilarated adjective for this twin-telephone booth truckable tug.

X marks the spot . . . the X generating much more excitement than A or B or C  . . . marks the spot.

I haven’t seen Treasure Coast in a spell.  Check this link for a great high and dry foto of  Treasure Coast‘s hull.

Yeah . . . how could I not go here.  You knew it too, right?

X . . . the ecstatic letter;  English really could function as well with “eks,” but the energy level, the fuel that drives ambition, would be diminished.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

River Day 1

River Day is eight days if you want to be technical.  I’d like to do all of them, but . . .  The fotos here are roughly chronological and exclude relatively new active duty government boats.  Most of these vessels have appeared on this blog before;  use the search window if you wish to locate these posts.  Minimal prose today.  First, the raison d’etre, Half Moon passing Robbins Light.

The “other” Dutch boat Onrust, not actually a replica of a boat made in the Low Countries.

Shearwater passing in front of MOT (or MOTBY) and Explorer of the Seas.

Fireboat John J Harvey.

Vintage sky traffic.

Mystic Whaler

Clipper City

Clearwater

R. Ian Fletcher

Governor Cleveland

Adirondack

Harvey again

Onrust again

OK, this is the quiz portion of the post.

Quiz continues. . . .

. . .

A little over 25 miles (and six hours)  from the starting point, Half Moon passes the Tarrytown Light.

And judging from the “face” in the stern of Onrust, launched less than a month ago, she’s a happy yacht.

River Day will give Bowsprite so much fodder for continuing her sailing ship guide that she might not know where to begin!  Tomorrow’s itinerary is the 30 miles approximately between the Tappan Zee and Newburgh.

Many thanks to ExploreNY400 for the press passes and to Nicole for going the extra mile so that we got got the best fotos as well as to the staff of Circle Line who ran the very hospitable but unpictured vessel we were on.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp on River Day 1.  More to come.

So . . . can you think of any sixth boro schooners NOT depicted here?  I can think of a handful.  I wonder why they didn’t participate . . . .

Also, given the dearth of historical detail on the real Henry Hudson, Bowsprite and I have been reading his mate–R Juet’s log–and “interpreting/extrapolating Henry’s thoughts here.